A Blender-based simulation tool for Visible Light Positioning with portable devices

Studying a positioning system performance is a tedious task that requires extensive study and taking a vast number of measurements. This paper presents a Blender-based simulator capable of faithfully reproducing the conditions and elements of a positioning environment based on visible light technology. The system can simulate real measurements with a mean fidelity of 96 % and perform automated sample collection tasks. Positioning evaluation is carried out on a 0.8 × 1.1 m
²
grid with 391 test points where the accuracy and coverage of the system are measured for different smartphone camera orientations. An average error of 0.53 × 10
⁻³
m and 100 % coverage is obtained in the most favourable case when the camera and the LED panel are face to face. Conversely, an 8.25×10
⁻³
m maximum error and 30 % coverage is measured for an orientation of 40° relative to the X-axis reference system established on the camera lens.